Posts Tagged Application Security

Cyber criminals today are getting tech savvy and coming up with more sophisticated hacking techniques, thus a meticulous approach is required to address all the potential causes of an attack.

Moreover, as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and the Internet of Things (IoT) trends continue to rise in the workplaces, it has led to an increase in the endpoints that are vulnerable to attacks. Cyber security professionals must follow a layered approach to address the multiple aspects of network security.

Given below are the different layers that must be incorporated in a network security program:

Physical Security

The first step towards protecting your network should be to ensure security of all the computer systems and other devices connected to the network. Establish proper access control systems to prevent unauthorized usage. Limit the number of employees who can use computers that contain sensitive information. There should also be certain restrictions on accessing the corporate network, such as allowing only those devices that that have proper security software installed.

Computer Security

Unpatched software vulnerabilities provide the easiest backdoor for the hackers to gain access to your company’s network. Therefore, it is critical to fortify the computer systems’ security by installing anti-virus software, creating an application whitelist, removing unused programs and services, closing unwanted ports etc. Restrict software downloads by any employee except the system administrator. Software updates and patches should be downloaded directly from the vendor’s website.

Application Security

This layer focuses on securing the different web applications to ensure that they receive only genuine and relevant traffic. This may be done by using email spam filters, secure socket layer (SSL), virtual private network (VPN), XML security system etc. You can even set role based access control systems that prevent the ability of employees to view, create or modify files that are not related to their work.

Network Security

This is an important layer between the computer and application security. It involves real time monitoring of network anomalies, blocking unwanted traffic and monitoring bandwidth usage to ensure availability for critical processes. With network security, organizations can not only prevent breaches but also boost productivity and efficiency.

We, at Centex Technologies, provide network security solutions to businesses in Central Texas. For more information, feel free to call us at (855) 375 – 9654.

Mobile applications play an integral part in our daily lives. Right from online shopping, banking, gaming to controlling IoT devices and tracking fitness level, there is an app for almost every task that we perform regularly. Considering the extensive usage of apps, hackers are continually looking for vulnerabilities that can be exploited to initiate an online attack. Therefore, developers need to follow stringent testing procedures to ensure that the mobile apps are secure and do not provide a backdoor to the hackers.

Listed below are some useful application security tips for developers:

Create A Secure Code

There are a lot of vulnerabilities in an application’s source code that can provide an easy access to the hackers. You must make sure that the code you write is absolutely confidential. If possible, encrypt the code so that it cannot be read by anyone who doesn’t have the decryption key. Perform constant source code scanning to test for any vulnerabilities right from the beginning of the app development process.

Secure The Network Connections At The Back End

The web servers accessed by your application programming interface (API) should also have proper security measures in place. Sensitive information transmitted between the app’s server and the user must be protected against eavesdropping. You can consider carrying out vulnerability scan and penetration test to ensure that the data is secure.

Input Data Validations

Input validation is the first line of defense from attacks against your application. In order to design a secure application, you should always test and retest the input entered by the users. It is important to ensure that the data entered is consistent to what the specific form field is designed for. If the data does not match the expected set of value, such as a number in place of alphabets, it may hamper the proper functionality of the application.

Actively Deny Bad Requests

You should be familiar with the types of data and programs accessed by your application. User requests that can potentially jeopardize the security of your app must be actively blocked. Unsupported headers, excessively long URLs, unusual characters and other unlikely requests can be eliminated by using an application firewall.

We, at Centex Technologies, provide complete network security services to the business firms in Central Texas. For more tips to secure your web applications, feel free to call us at (855) 375 – 9654.

Web applications have provided a convenient way for businesses to offer better services to the customers. However, security is one of the biggest concerns while developing an app as even a minute vulnerability can provide a backdoor for the hackers to initiate a malicious attack. It is important to have a strategic testing procedure throughout the app development process. The process involves an in-depth analysis to identify the technical flaws or security vulnerabilities in the app and subsequently repair them. It ensures that the app can adequately protect important data and serve its intended functionality.

Given below is a complete checklist for application security testing:

Threat Modeling

Threat modeling is the first and most crucial step in testing a web application’s security. It involves analyzing the application bit-by-bit to map down the entry points, data flow and identify the exact location of the existing vulnerabilities. Thread modeling also includes ranking the vulnerabilities in order of severity and devising suitable countermeasures for the same.

User Authentication

Proper authentication mechanism is important to eliminate the risk of a brute force attack, making sure that only the authorized users and servers can have access. It should be verified that account suspension mechanism is working accurately and triggers a lock-out after repeated failed login attempts. Testing can be done by entering wrong combinations of username password till the account gets locked.

Access To Application

After the user’s login credentials have been authenticated by the application, the next thing to determine is the type of data he can or cannot access. Superfluous elevated rights can pose a risk of data breach. You can create multiple user accounts and set different access rights for each of them. After this, login with all the accounts and try to access the modules, screens, forms as well as menus. If any security issue is found, it needs to be corrected immediately.

Session Management

Session hijacking attacks are quite common in web applications. Hackers may attempt to steal the cookies of an already authenticated session to get control of the user’s access rights. In another form of session hijacking, the hacker may also passively capture the login credentials of the user. In order to protect the app users’ information, make sure that the cookies do not contain any sensitive information. Also, the session IDs should be unique and generated randomly after authenticating the user’s identity.

Contact Centex Technologies for more information on application security testing. We can be reached at (855) 375 – 9654.

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Author

Abdul Subhani

I am the President & CEO of
Centex Technologies Microsoft Small Business Specialist, Certified E-Commerce Consultant, Certified Ethical Hacker, Certified Fraud Examiner, Virtual Instructor and an IT Consultant/Speaker on IT Security, Networking, Small Business Architect, & SEO Internet Marketing.

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